Dispenser

ABSTRACT

A dispenser is formed with an elongated housing the interior of which is hollow for receiving a stack of nested cups. Each bottom cup is removed one at a time by pulling it past a retaining means including flexible bristles extending radially inward in the housing to engage the cups adjacent the rims thereof. A guiding means in the housing limits tilting or angular movement of the cups from a position substantially in alignment with a longitudinal axis for the dispenser. The guide means may be in the form of angularly spaced and longitudinally extending guiding ribs which are arranged to define a guiding surface having an internal diameter slightly greater than the exterior diameter of the cup rim.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Joseph Petricek, Sr.

LaMirada, Calif.

[211 App]. No. 832,171

[22] Filed June 11, 1969 [45] Patented Mar. 9, 1971 [73] Assignee SoloCup Company Chicago, Ill.

[54] DISPENSER 6 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

Attorney-Anderson, Luedeka, Fitch and Even and Tabin ABSTRACT: Adispenser is formed with an elongated housing the interior of which ishollow for receiving a stack of nested cups. Each bottom cup is removedone at a time by pulling it past a retaining means including flexiblebristles extending radially inward in the housing to engage the cupsadjacent the rims thereof. A guiding means in the housing limits tiltingor angular movement of the cups from a position substantially inalignment with a longitudinal axis for the dispenser. The guide meansmay be in the form of angularly spaced and longitudinally extendingguiding ribs which are arranged to define a guiding surface having aninternal diameter slightly greater than the exterior diameter of the cuprim.

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"MENTOR JOSEPH PETRIGEK 8R.

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PATENTE DHAR slam I "8,568,884 sumznrz M INVENTOR r JOSEPH PETRIQEK 8R.

A'I'TYB DISPENSER general kind shown in H. W. Johnson et al. U.S. Pat.No.

3,342,375 in which a housing is formed with a hollow interior with anopening at one end through which cups may be removed. The cups areretained in the dispenser by bristles extending inwardly from an innerwall of the housing toward the cup stack with the innerends of thebristles engaging and projecting between rims of adjacent cups andcausing the cups to separate as the cups are removed one at a time fromthe stack. The flexibility of the bristles permits ready removal of cupswithout distorting the mouth of the cup during the removal thereof. Thisis in contrast to some of the prior art dispensers having spring loads,knobs, shoulders or the like which tended to pinch the mouth of the cupout of round.

When filling the dispenser, the cups are inserted through an open endthereof into the longitudinally extending hollow interior of the housingand it sometimes occurs that a careless insertion of the stack resultsin the stack being inclined at an angle to the longitudinalaxis of thedispenser. On the other hand, cups in the dispenser and adjacent thebottom of the stack may become tilted within the housing due to aperson's grasping and pulling of a previously dispensed cup at an angleto the longitudinal axis of the dispenser. As the bristles haveinsufficient strength to center the stack, the cups will remain tippedor inclined to the axis.

Accordingly, a general object of the invention is to center a stack ofnested cups substantially on the longitudinal axis of a dispenser of theforegoing kind.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent fromthe detailed description taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a dispenser embodying theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary, enlarged sectional view taken substantiallyalong the line 2-2 of FIG. 1;.

FIG. 3 is a layout view of a retaining strip having bristles thereon foruse in the dispenser of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged plan view of a portion of the housing having meansfor guiding the stack of cups; and

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 5-5 of FIG. 4.

As shown in the drawings for'purposes of illustration, the invention isembodied in a dispenser 11 having an elongated housing 13 with a hollowinterior for receiving a stack 15 (FIG. 2) of nested cups 17 which areremoved one at a time by pulling lowermost cup past a retaining means 19including flexible bristles 21 extending radially inward to engage thecups adjacent the rims thereof. In this instance, the nested cups areinserted through a bottom open end 23 of the housing and are guided formovement upwardly to a position in which a longitudinally extending axisthrough the center of the stack is substantially aligned. on alongitudinally extending axis 25 for the dispenser. The cups at thebottom of the stack are also 4 held and guided against turning to atilted position in which the lowermost cup or cups have their respectivelongitudinal axes disposed angularly relative to the dispenser axis 25.To accomplish these alignments, the dispenser is provided with guidemeans in the form of angularly spaced, longitudinally extending ribs 29which are arranged to define a guiding surface having a diameterslightly greater than the diameter of the cup rim. The guiding ribs 29are interspersed with the bristles 21 and cooperate therewith inassuring a one at a time and easy separation of cups from each other andfrom the dispenser.

with an upper cylinder 31 and a lower cylinder 33 which are molded of aplastic material such as polyethylene or polypropylene. lntegrallyformed on the outer surface of the upper cylinder is an outwardlyextending connector 35 which is releasably fastened to a bracket 37which may be mounted on a suitable support such as a wall 39. In thisinstance, the dispenser 11 is spaced slightly outward from the wall 39with its longitudinal axis disposed substantially vertically. The uppercylinder has a closed top wall 41 joined to a generally cylindrical sidewall 43 which tapers downwardly and outwardly towards a lower, open end45 joined to the lower cylinder. A decorative band 50 may be securedabout the end- 45 of the upper cylinder above the lip 47 of the lowercylinder. This lower end 45 of the top cylinder is disposed inwardly ofan upper lip 47 of the lower cylinder and abuts the latter at ahorizontally disposed, annular shoulder 49 and vertically disposed ringwall 51.

The upper cylinder 31 has a snap fit interlock with the lower cylinder33 to hold the housing cylinders against separation. For this purpose,the upper cylinder 31 is provided with an annular extending andoutwardly projecting ring 53 which is adapted to fit into acomplementary shaped, inwardly facing.

and annularly extending groove 55 (FIG. 5) formed in the lip 43 of thelower cylinder. The cylinder walls are sufficiently thin and flexible atthese mating portions to permit the contraction of one and the expansionof the other when joining the cylinders together. If desired, a suitableadhesive or bonding agent may be used to join the upper and lowercylinders permanently together.

To guide a series of cups rather than only a single cup, the guide meansis formed with ribs 29 having an appreciable vertical extent from alocation about midway of the bristles to an equal or greater heightabove the bristles. Herein, the guiding means includes three guidingribs 29 spaced angularly at from each other and equidistantly from thelongitudinal axis of the lower cylinder 33. In this instance, theguiding ribs are integrally attached at the lower ends thereof to abottom end 61, as best seen in FIGS. 2 and 5, of the lower cylinder.Each of the longitudinally extending guiding ribs 29 is inclinedinwardly at a slight angle, e.g. 2, to the vertical and is arcuatelyformed within an inner curved surface 63 on the upper half of which arevertically extending projections 65 extending radi ally inward from thecurved surface 63 to abut the rim on a cup being turned toward it.Between the guiding ribs are spaced windows or openings 67 each of whichis adapted to accommodate two groups 69 of bristles 21 which projectinwardly beyond the circumferentialsurface of the guiding ribs. Theopenings 67 are defined by a lower wall 71 and upwardly convergingsidewalls 73 for the guiding ribs 29. These converging sidewalls 73terminate at a top wall 75 for the guiding rib 29. These top walls 75are slanted downwardly and in wardly toward the axis 25 at about 30 tofacilitate a cup rim sliding therealong should a cup rim engage it.

p The lower cylinder 33 also serves to support and hold the retainingmeans 19 in an annular groove or seat 77 formed between its outer wall79 and a smaller diameter inner wall 81 located adjacent the bottom ofthe lower cylinder 33. The cylinder outer wall 79 is inclined at angle Bof about 6 to the vertical in this instance.

The preferred bristles are made of a plastic material such aspolyethylene or polypropylene and are conveniently supported in clusters69on a bandlike supporting strip 81. The preferred band itself is acurved strip of plastic material with the bristles integrally formedtherewith by molding techniques well known in the art. Due to thecurvature of the strip, as best shown in FIG. 3, the band is shaped intoa truncated cone when inserted into the seat 77 and disposed between theguiding ribs 29 and the outer wall 79 of the lower cylinder.

The action of the bristles 26 with respect to the cup rims is bestunderstood in relationship to the illustration of FIG. 2 in which astack of cups is shown inserted into the interior of the dispenser withthe bristles resiliently engaging the cup at and about the cup rims toretain the stack in position. The lowermost cup can be removed from thestack and the dispenser by grasping and pulling it downwardly. As it ispulled downwardly, its rim riffles the bristles 26 beneath it and thisremoval operation causes the next above cup to separate slightly fromthe cups thereabove. That is, the resilient bristles snap into the spacebetween the rims as shown in FIG. 2 to progressively separate the fewlowermost cups for subsequent ready removal from the lowermost cup, asfully described in the aforesaid patent.

As best seen in FIG. 2, the bristles 26 at the discharge end of thedispenser have progressively decreasing lengths in the downwarddirection with the lowermost and shortest bristles being less flexiblethan the longer upper bristles. The inner ends of the bristles terminateat a right circular cylinder of slightly less internal diameter than theexternal diameter of the cup rim, although the strip 81 carrying thebristles 21 is shaped as a truncated cone when seated in the seat 77.

The more flexible, longer bristles at the top edge of the strip willsnap into the space between the cup rims causing the cups to separateslightly before reaching the lowermost position for removal from thedispenser. This slight separation prior to removal assures that only asingle cup is removed when the lowermost cup is gripped and pulleddownwardly in the usual manner. his to be understood that since thebristles 26 project slightly under the cup rims and there are a greatnumber of them, a considerable portion of which are curved downwardly bythe rims, the tendency for them to return to their original shapeprovides sufficient support for the stack of the cups, yet permitscomparatively easy removal for the lowermost cup regardless whether thestack of cups is a full stack or only a few. Also, it is to beunderstood that the bristles are sufiiciently stiff to support the stackand yet sufficiently resilient to permit individual removal of cupswithout distorting the cup rims permanently as in prior art dispensershaving solid projections engaging under the cup rims. As the guidingribs 29 limit the tilting of the cups from positions substantiallycentered on the longitudinally extending axis 25, the cups aresubstantially centered and equally supported on bristles 26 and may bereadily pulled one at a time from the dispenser without exerting anunusual pulling force which could damage the cup.

While a preferred embodiment has been shown and described, it will beunderstood that there is no intent to limit the invention by suchdisclosure but, rather, itis intended to cover all modifications andalternate constructions falling within the spirit and scope of theinvention as defined in the appended claims.

lclaim:

l. A dispenser for receiving a stack of nested cups and for dispensingthe cups one at a time, said cups having a rim at the top edge thereofof a predetermined diameter, said dispenser comprising an elongatedhousing having a hollow interior to receive the stack of nested cups andhaving an axis extending longitudinally of said housing, cup retainingmeans including a plurality of bristles disposed in said hollow interiorof said housing adjacent the bottom thereof and projecting radiallyinwardly and defining at the inner ends thereof an opening having adiameter smaller than the diameter of said cup rim so that the bristlesproject to engage said cup rims and support the stack of nested cups,said inner ends of bristles being arranged substantiallycircumferentially disposed about the longitudinal axis of said housingmeans and being sufficiently stiff to support said stack of cups byengaging the rims of each of the lowermost cups of the stack andresilient to snap in the space of the adjacent cups when a bottom cup isremoved from the stack, and guide means in said housing operativelyassociated with said bristles to maintain said stack substantiallycentered on said longitudinal axis so that said individual cups arecentered for dispensing movement.

2. A dispenser in accordance with claim 1 in which said bristles areformed in groups spaced about the interior of said housing and in whichsaid guide means includes longitudinally extending guide ribs disposedin the spaces between said bristol pups. j j

3. A ispenser in accordance with claim 2 in which said longitudinallyextending guide ribs are integrally fonned on said housing and projectradially inward toward the longitudinal axis of said housing.

4. A dispenser in accordance with claim 3 in which said guide ribs areintegrally attached to said housing adjacent the bottom thereof andextend upwardly and inwardly therefrom to define a seat in the housing,and in which said cup retaining means includes a retaining strip towhich said bristles are fastened, said retaining strip being seated insaid seat between said guide ribs and said housing wall.

5. A dispenser for receiving a stack of nested cups and for dispensingthe cups one at a time, the cups having a rim at the top edge thereofwith a predetermined diameter, said dispenser comprising an elongatedhousing having a hollow interior to receive the stack of nested cups andhaving an axis extending longitudinally of said housing, said housinghaving an opening at the lower end thereof through which cups may bedischarged, cup retaining means including a plurality of bristlesdisposed in said hollow interior of said housing adjacent the said lowerend, said bristles projecting radially inwardly and defining at the endsthereof a surface having a diameter smaller than the diameter of saidcup rim so that the bristles project to enga'ge said cup rims andsupport the stack of nested cups, said bristles being formed in groupsspaced angularly about the interior of said housing and beingsufficiently stiff to support said stack of cups by engaging the rims ofeach of the lowermost cups of the stack and sufficiently resilient tosnap in the space between adjacent cups when the bottom cup is removedfrom the stack, and a series of guide ribs integrally formed in saidhousing and spaced angularly about said housing and projecting radiallyinward to define a surface having an internal diameter slightly largerthan said outer diameter of said rims of said cups, said groups ofbristles projecting inwardly into spaces intermediate said guide ribsfor engagement with said cups so that cups being tilted relative to saidlongitudinal axis may engage said guide ribs to remain substantially inalignment with said longitudinal axis of said housmg.

6. A dispenser in accordance with claim 5 in which means are provided tojoin said guide ribs to said housing at a position located downwardlyfrom said bristles and in which said guide ribs project upwardly andinwardly from said means to said guide surface having an internaldiameter slightly larger than said diameter of cup rims.

1. A dispenser for receiving a stack of nested cups and for dispensingthe cups one at a time, said cups having a rim at the top edge thereofof a predetermined diameter, said dispenser comprising an elongatedhousing having a hollow interior to receive the stack of nested cups andhaving an axis extending longitudinally of said housing, cup retainingmeans including a plurality of bristles disposed in said hollow interiorof said housing adjacent the bottom thereof and projecting radiallyinwardly and defining at the inner ends thereof an opening having adiameter smaller than the diameter of said cup rim so that the bristlesproject to engage said cup rims and support the stack of nested cups,said inner ends of bristles being arranged substantiallycircumferentially disposed about the longitudinal axis of said housingmeans and being sufficiently stiff to support said stack of cups byengaging the rims of each of the lowermost cups of the stack andresilient to snap in the space of the adjacent cups when a bottom cup isremoved from the stack, and guide means in said housing operativelyassociated with said bristles to maintain said stack substantiallycentered on said longitudinal axis so that said individual cups arecentered for dispensing movement.
 2. A dispenser in accordance withclaim 1 in which said bristles are formed in groups spaced about theinterior of said housing and in which said guide means includeslongitudinally extending guide ribs disposed in the spaces between saidbristol groups.
 3. A dispenser in accordance with claim 2 in which saidlongitudinally extending guide ribs are integrally formed on saidhousing and project radially inward toward the longitudinal axis of saidhousing.
 4. A dispenser in accordance with claim 3 in which said guideribs are integrally attached to said housing adjacent the bottom thereofand extend upwardly and inwardly therefrom to define a seat in thehousing, and in which said cup retaining means includes a retainingstrip to which said bristles are fastened, said retaining strip beingseated in said seat between said guide ribs and said housing wall.
 5. Adispenser for receiving a stack of nested cups and for dispensing thecups one at a time, the cups having a rim at the top edge thereof with apredetermined diameter, said dispenser comprising an elongated housinghaving a hollow interior to receive the stack of nested cups and havingan axis extending longitudinally of said housing, said housing having anopening at the lower end thereof through which cups may be discharged,cup retaining means including a plurality of bristles disposed in saidhollow interior of said housing adjacent the said lower end, saidbristles projecting radially inwardly and defining at the ends thereof asurface having a diameter smaller than the diameter of said cup rim sothat the bristles project to engage said cup rims and support the stackof nested cups, said bristles being formed in groups spaced angularlyabout the interior of said housing and being sufficiently stiff tosupport said stack of cups by engaging the rims of each of the lowermostcups of the stack and sufficiently resilient to snap in the spacebetween adjacent cups when the bottom cup is removed from the stack, anda series of guide ribs integrally formed in said housing and spacedangularly about said housing and projecting radially inward to define asurface having an internal diameter slightly larger than said outerdiameter of said rims of said cups, said groups of bristles projectinginwardly into spaces intermediate sAid guide ribs for engagement withsaid cups so that cups being tilted relative to said longitudinal axismay engage said guide ribs to remain substantially in alignment withsaid longitudinal axis of said housing.
 6. A dispenser in accordancewith claim 5 in which means are provided to join said guide ribs to saidhousing at a position located downwardly from said bristles and in whichsaid guide ribs project upwardly and inwardly from said means to saidguide surface having an internal diameter slightly larger than saiddiameter of cup rims.